Chapter 156
The offensive of the white monsters was growing increasingly fierce.
The Keyzen students were literally pouring out Darkness to hold the line, but they were nearing their limits.
They all wished that at least killing the enemy brought some sense of accomplishment. But no matter how many they killed, more white monsters kept dropping from thin air and swarming in. Morale was scraping the floor.
"Hold the line! I don't care if your heads get cracked, hold it!"
And the dormitory defense line, on the brink of collapse.
This side had built the line with their backs to the dormitory building, so there was no route for retreat.
"Four extra-large ones incoming!"
"This is the end, for real this time."
Just when everyone was realizing they had hit their limit, black cubes began drifting down from the sky with the wind.
Click!
One of them even descended onto the dormitory defense line. The cube hit the ground and disassembled, forming a magic circle, and a person leapt out from within.
The students, half in despair, widened their eyes. Some blinked in disbelief, while others burst into cheers and tears.
"Professor Jane!!!"
Jane, dressed sharply in a black suit, walked forward, her high heels clicking on the ground.
"Everyone, fall back."
The vice-chancellor's command was absolute. The students, who had been staking their lives to defend the line, all retreated at once.
'A terrorist attack using Prima Materia, right in our faces, how vile.'
Fury surged to the top of her head, but rescuing the students took priority.
With bloodshot eyes scanning her surroundings, Jane unfolded a black magic circle on the ground.
Shhhhhhh—
From it, tens of thousands of black butterflies burst forth like fireworks. These artificial lifeforms created through black magic scattered at blinding speed across the battlefield.
As Jane slowly extended her hand, butterflies flew toward it, clustering together to form the shape of a massive scythe.
Snap.
Rustle.
The tens of thousands of butterflies latched onto all visible monsters in the area, including the extra-large ones.
Jane grasped the scythe in a reverse grip. Before her, a straw-made curse doll had appeared out of nowhere. She hooked the scythe around the doll's neck and then lifted it and sliced.
Shhhhhhlick!
Slash!
In that instant, thousands of white monsters surrounding them had their heads severed and collapsed to the ground. The students' mouths dropped open.
'Woooow...!'
'What kind of black magic is that?!'
Jane drew a new magic circle. From within it, crimson chains burst forth like waterfalls, and the butterflies grabbed the ends and flew off.
Clinkclinkclink!
Clink!
As if constructing a barrier, the butterflies dragged the chains around and wrapped the entire dormitory defense line. The white monsters made of Prima Materia tried to pass through, but wherever the chains touched, the creatures turned black with necrosis and crumbled. This time, it was a curse.
Jane turned to the students and spoke.
"Under no circumstances are you to go outside the chains."
"Y-Yes, ma'am!"
Riding atop the butterflies, she led the countless chains and moved on to the next battlefield. The students stared at her retreating figure, as if mesmerized.
* * *
"...Damn it."
Aron cursed right from the start.
"Why the hell are you following me?"
Beside him, Bahil walked leisurely, a smile on his face.
"To a first-rate curse user, distance means nothing. No matter where the target is, the curse will reach."
"I'm asking why you're following me."
"Haha, don't be so stiff. Isn't it nice to team up again after so long? Makes me nostalgic."
"It's a dark memory I'd rather forget."
Bahil chuckled as he spoke.
"Let's divide the roles: attack and defense. Which one do you want?"
"Attack."
"I want attack too, so let's decide with this."
Bahil pulled a coin out of his pocket.
"Heads or tails. What'll it be?"
"Tails."
"Then I'm heads."
Even as countless white monsters swarmed toward them, the two men were wholly focused on the result of the coin toss. Bahil checked the coin in his palm and grinned.
"Heads, as expected! You really know how to care for your juniors, senior!"
"...Same old annoying tricks."
"Then I won't hold back. I'll go first."
Bahil raised both arms toward the sky.
On the surface, nothing appeared to change. But some students fighting the monsters began looking up.
"T-The moon...!"
Two moons now hung in the sky.
Of them, the recently created one—a massive full moon—was looming close over the entire Keyzen campus. The body of the moon rippled, and from its center, a blood-red eye emerged.
That entire moon was Bahil's magic circle.
"Now I'll show you the true essence of a curse."
Bahil smirked and activated the magic.
The eye embedded in the moon snapped wide open, veins of blood spreading across its sclera. A crimson light poured down, as if the entire world were drenched in blood.
This red light triggered every nerve in any being lacking intelligence. The monsters, sensing the source of the strange phenomenon, looked up.
Crack!
Snap!
And the moment their eyes met the moon and its gaze, the monsters' bodies petrified and crumbled to dust.
Whooosh—
The same happened across other locations. The white monsters, helpless, disintegrated into powder and scattered in every direction.
An ultra-wide-area curse. As he claimed, Bahil was attacking all the monsters spread across the campus in one fell swoop.
"What the hell's going on?"
Maelyn, who had been fighting monsters after finishing a broadcast, frowned at the sudden change.
She looked up.
"Wait, Maelyn! Don't look at the sky!"
Dick swung his enchanted sword and cleaved a white monster as he shouted.
"That's Professor Bahil's curse! The infamous Medusa's Eye!"
"...?"
She brushed her hair behind her ear.
"I already looked at it, stared right at that moon and eye. But nothing happened?"
"...Huh, seriously?"
At her words, Dick also looked up at the moon.
It was true. Nothing happened. Meanwhile, the surrounding monsters were still turning to dust and scattering.
'He's distinguishing students and monsters with sheer control while covering that huge an area? Haha! As expected of Professor Bahil...!'
"Kyaaaaaaah!"
Dick flinched and turned.
Maelyn was suddenly soaring into the air. A red Bone Armor had wrapped around her body.
"What the, where are you going?"
"You think I want to go?! You idiot!!"
Click! Clank!
Before he knew it, a red Bone Armor had also wrapped itself around Dick's body.
"Uwaaah!"
Dick, being dragged into the air, opened his eyes wide.
Dozens, even hundreds of students clad in red Bone Armor were flying through the sky at the same time. They, too, wore confused expressions.
'Wait, those red skeletons! Professor Aron has arrived too!'
Looking at the red skeletons swarming the sky like a cloud of locusts, Dick clicked his tongue in awe.
'How many undead is he controlling at once?'
Clack. Snap.
The red skeletons in Bone Armor gently dropped Dick, Maelyn, and the other students onto the rooftops of safe buildings, then flew off to rescue more students.
Maelyn, now on the rooftop, grimaced from nausea, while Dick threw both arms up and laughed loudly.
"Wahaha! We're saved! The professors are here!"
The other students, finally grasping the situation, also erupted into cheers.
'It's been a while since I've done this level of control.'
The summoner Aron tousled his bangs.
Above his head, a massive undead warship made of bone hovered silently. From the ship, red skeletons poured out and spread across the entire Keyzen campus.
Students fleeing into the woods, those hiding in basements, even those crouched inside classroom cabinets, Aron spotted them all without fail and moved them to safety.
"Oh, you're still alive, senior."
Bahil smirked while maintaining Medusa's Eye.
"If you'd majored in Katarology instead of Summonology, you'd surely be in a higher tier by now."
"Shut up and undo the petrification on my shoulder. Or I'll kill you."
"Ah, you noticed?"
* * *
The last to arrive was Hongpeng, who appeared on the rooftop of a building.
She closed her eyes and began dancing the Dance of Consciousness in solemn silence. Her sleeves fluttered as she stepped lightly, then the tempo quickened, her movements growing more intense, incorporating intricate footwork and sharp twists of the head.
Clack. Tap.
Eventually, she finished the motion with a sharp clap of her palms, then sat down in a cross-legged position, placing both hands on her knees.
And then—
BOOOOOOOM!
A thunderous roar erupted. The wind whipped past her as space around her seemed to twist.
Whack!
A white monster hundreds of meters away collapsed, its head blown open by a massive hole.
Boom! BOOM! Boom!
Cannon-like blasts erupted one after another from her cross-legged form. The heads and torsos of monsters swarming the campus began to explode.
Though sitting perfectly still, her arms moved so fast that afterimages formed, and shockwaves radiated out from her body.
It was a scene deserving of the name "human artillery". The heads of the charging monsters burst from an unknown force.
Meanwhile, the evacuating students were clad in Aron's Bone Armor and transported to the safe zones that Jane had prepared. Those monsters who survived Hongpeng's bombardment were turned to stone and vanished under Bahil's curse.
There were many injuries, but not a single death.
Thanks to the efforts of the Keyzen professors, the campus returned to safety.
* * *
"It's been a while, Saint of Purification."
Neftis spoke.
Riding atop a metal golem made of White Flame, Plema didn't show her face, but she froze as if someone had hit the pause button. She clearly seemed flustered.
[You broke the barrier that easily? I'm sure I imbued it with a resistance equivalent to ten years of time...!]
Neftis gave a gentle smile.
"Yeah. It was tricky to unravel for sure. So I paid the ten years and came through."
[...!]
Plema's enormous body flinched.
[Have you gone senile?! Are those few hundred students worth ten years of your life?!]
Neftis extended her small hand.
"They are."
Bang!
Then she flicked her finger, like giving a light snap. Plema dodged with a quick motion, but a massive hole opened up behind her.
[Grgh!]
Plema lunged and swung her White Flame sword. Neftis opened her palm.
Tick, tick, tick!
A golden magic circle shaped like a clock unfolded in front of her. When the White Flame sword touched the barrier, it softened and reverted back into holiness.
"Nothing in this world is free from time."
Neftis said.
"Mana, holiness, even Darkness—the sources of this world—all fade as time passes. There's no such thing as eternity."
She lightly pushed the golden magic circle with her fingertip.
The magic circle shot forward at incredible speed, passing the White Flame sword and piercing straight through Plema's massive form.
[!!]
The metal golem peeled away, revealing Plema's body underneath, her arm now fully restored, along with the wounds she had received earlier from the Greatsword of Destruction.
Time had fully reversed.
"Hmph."
Neftis smirked and wiggled her fingers. The magic circle, which had flown past Plema, suddenly reversed and came back, passing through her body once more.
Her right arm disappeared again, and the wound from the Greatsword of Destruction returned.
[Aaaaaaaagh!]
Plema screamed as she lost her arm again. At the same time, from the magic circle on the ground, a giant black hand resembling a demon's claw reached up and grabbed her.
"Squeeze."
Neftis, with her tiny hand, clenched her fist tightly.
"...!"
Simon, watching in stunned silence, instinctively turned his head away.
The demon's hand tightened its grip, and pop!—something burst with a sickening sound.